The Nice Reaper is Me
by cbethany
Summary: Stella McCarty is caught up in the fate of becoming the new reaper. She goes through many tests to prove her worthiness.


I Am the New Reaper

"To be or not to be, that is the question." I always thought I understood this statement pretty well, but when it actually applied to my life, I was left speechless.

It would have been a regular birthday for me today, but before I left for school, my mom said in a deep, evil tone, "You are not as normal as you think you are Diana." Creepy. Nice way to start my birthday. She even forgot to say "Happy Birthday," oh well; it was not the first time. It was then I thought I was hallucinating and that it was time to leave.

Angel squealed. At least someone remembered.

"Thanks," I said, "now keep it down; I do not want the whole school to know and break out into a party."

"Have you gotten—," she cut off and her eyes dilated to fill up her eyes with black, "your scythe?" She spoke in the low, dark tone I heard my mother speak in this morning. Now I knew I had not been hallucinating this morning. But I could not think about that now because Angel's eyes went back to normal, but she fell back to the floor unconscious.

"Angel, Angel?" I asked in panic. "HELP! HELP!" I screamed. I never guessed that the one person to come would be the one that I hated. Yes, of course Mr. Haggard had to be the person to come. But I was eager for the help, so this creepy kind of Gothic looking teacher would have to do. We communicated in silence. As we picked Angel up, my mind started racing through questions that had never popped up before. Why was Mr. Haggard always the one to come in times of distress? Why did he dress so darkly? And why did it seem like I knew him from another place, as another person that was not a teacher? Never mind. I needed to get Angel dealt with.

Mr. Haggard did not lead us to the nurse's office like I thought he would. Instead he led us to his classroom. "What are you—" next thing I knew, I was struck with a force of searing pain inside my head. It burned like nothing else, and in the process of burning, I blacked out.

I awakened in a place that looked like the fiery pits of hell. The dark voice that had taken over Angel's body had muted… for now. Angel… where was she? Where was I? I got up and started exploring. "Diana McCarty!" the voice boomed. In those two words of this guy's voice, I burst with rage; rage of my mother and my friend being taken over by this stupid voice that sounded right now on my birthday. I would have destroyed everything in my path, but curiosity and my survival instincts took over telling me to be cautious. I looked down and realized I was floating, but two seconds later, I knew the reason why. I was in my element, fire, and because I was angry, the power was so strong, it ran through my system. I radiated power which caused me to float; the only problem was, I had no idea how I knew that.

I started looking around again, seeing the fire that surrounded me. The flames went up thirty feet high before it reached a dark, red sky. Judging by the place I was in, I guessed that I was in whatever this town's square. I saw the floating souls, people all black with soot, and a dragon with red and black scales.

I summoned a map so I could see where I was. There was a star on the place where I stood. The town was apparently called Scare City. I had to admit the town looked pretty wicked, except of the scarce use of colors. All I saw was black, red, yellow, and orange, the colors of a flame.

"Diana McCarty!" the same voice boomed again. Oh no. Not again! I looked up and staggered back when I saw what had said my name. It was in thirds. Part human, part animal, part soul, all ghastly; that was not the reason I reacted. That thing was the same one that had always appeared in my nightmares. "You have reached your age to claim what is rightfully yours," it said. "This is your destiny!"

"Who are you?" I screamed at him. "And what have you done with my friend?"

"All questions will be answered in dear time. But now, it is time for you to prove your worthiness. You are the first female of your kind to become The Reaper."

"A reaper," I screeched, "As in the Grim Reaper?" I started hyperventilating.

"Get a grip! This is no way for the future reaper to act. Be your powerful and almighty self,"

"Man, dog, what ever you are, you have the wrong person. I have never done anything—,"

"That is why your training will start NOW!" Immediately a grand staff appeared in his hand. He hit the hilt of it to the ground, and the earth ripped apart in a lighting shaped crack. I fell through screaming for dear life. I heard the words: "Do not fight the force of Earth; be with it." The force of earth… The force of earth! Those words confirmed that I could control the earth. I started pulling up rock from below. I maneuvered with what I summoned and eventually, I lightly hit the ground. "Impressive. Though, this was only your first task, the next one starts now." He then disappeared in a puff of smoke.

The same dragon I had seen in Scare city was right in front of me. This was my next task. Either I killed the dragon, or I tamed it. "Hey!" I yelled. "Get your scaly head down here!" In response, he blew a gust of fire in my direction. I summoned rock to block it. The dragon was determined to defeat me; that was not going to happen. I dropped stalactites on top of him, and threw fire of my own at him.

When I had dropped yet another stalactite, I could feel the dragon tire. Hey if I can control earth and fire, how about water? Water is a dragon's worst enemy. I dropped another stalactite, but the one that had water dripping off of it. I felt the cool force and power raced through me. I doused him from head to toe. I got up; the dragon was whimpering. I patted its wet scales. It purred affectionately. I climbed on top of him and quickly fell asleep.

I suddenly woke up in the red sky. "Your last challenge; defeat my dragon!" The same murderously enraged anger that I had first entered the cave rose back inside of me. Was this guy trying to kill me? I yelled to the battle; my dragon rose higher to the challenge. The battle would start, and I would be the champion. In that moment, I realized the reason why I could control earth, water, and fire. I had the elements of Earth. One more element could be used now, and that was air. I jumped off my dragon and walked in the air. We were ready. "Let the battle begin!"

His dragon started with offense. I knew exactly what I was to do. So did my dragon. Dragon would go to dragon; person would duel with the thing. I started with something small: dousing him. "You are to defeat my dragon, not me!"

"This was your fault!" I said. "It only makes sense for me to fight you!"

"Very well; prepare to lose." The dance started. He gusted fire to me. I had the water to block it. He got more fire. I burned him with his own fire with wind. I realized that he only had the element of fire. He was supported by the magic carpet. I combined all my powers in one. This would definitely win. With all my might I threw it at him. It hit his chest with a powerful blow. He fell to the Earth. His dragon saw his master's failure. He dived. That was a big mistake. My dragon and I combined our powers. I used my water powers, he used fire. We made a bubble of fire and sent it down. That did it. The dragon exploded into smithereens. We floated to the ground.

"Curses," the weird guy yelled, "look at what you have done!"

"Yeah we won. You said defeat your dragon, and we did."

"Well you passed your test." He grumbled. "You are the new reaper of your kind. Here is your scythe. May your reaping be enjoyable."

"Thanks, now who are you? What have you done to Angel? And what is my job as a reaper?"

I am Mansomal, like human, soul, and animal put together. But you know me as Mr. Haggard. I was your guardian, making sure that you were worthy of becoming a reaper. Angel is back on Earth at home asleep. She has no memory of what had happened today. Your job as a reaper is to bring peace to the world."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa; I thought reapers were supposed to be evil and stuff."

"That was only the Grim Reaper's job. You have shown that you are a fine young lady, therefore, you are the Nice Reaper. May the force be with you."

"Wait, before I leave can I ask one more question?"

"What is that?" he asked warily.

"Can I keep the dragon?"

"Sure, the only thing is, the dragon will be invisible to all others. By the way, his name is Saney."

"How will I get home?"

"That is my job, and you will be leaving right now." The world spun around me, and then I plopped right onto my bed. Saney had conveniently shrunk to fir house size. I petted him, and then fell asleep.

The words boomed inside my head. "You have only enperienced the beginning, my young reaper. I am **your** mentor, but someone else will have another. She will have the best mentor history of reaping mentors!"


End file.
